When you’re searching for a job in the video game industry, LinkedIn is a powerful tool for building your network. But there are some “unwritten rules” of LinkedIn etiquette. You can end up embarrassing yourself if you aren’t thoughtful when you invite people to Connect. Stick to these 3 simple rules and you can’t go wrong.

1. Don’t Invite Somebody You’ve Never Met

Most professionals don’t accept connection requests from people they’ve never heard of. If you invite somebody that doesn’t know who you are, they probably won’t accept… and you’ll make a bad first impression.

The good news is that you don’t have to meet them face-to-face before they’ll accept. It’s perfectly okay to connect with somebody if you’ve met them over the phone, via email, or on a discussion forum (as long as you’ve actually had a conversation with them). Just be sure they know you well enough that they won’t think “who the hell are you” when they get your request.

Tip: type any job title, keywords, company, or location

2. Customize Your Message

When you send an invitation to connect, it defaults to a generic (and lame) message. If you take this chance to write a custom message, it shows your new connection that you aren’t just spamming people – you care about connecting on a more personal level. As a bonus, it also gives you a chance to remind them where you met or what you have in common.

Here are some examples to help you get started.

“Hi, John. We met at GDC last week, and I enjoyed talking with you about Bay Area micro-brews. I’m just getting started in the game industry, and would love to stay in touch. Take care, Bailey Smith.”

“Good morning! Thank you for visiting my school to tell us about your game studio. The information was really helpful for students who are just starting out. It would be great to stay in touch so I can return the favor some day! Sincerely, Mike Jones.”

Note that the LinkedIn mobile app doesn’t let you include a message on some devices. So it’s best to use the full web page when making a request, to guarantee that you get a chance to customize your note.

3. Stay In Touch!

The whole point of LinkedIn is to stay in touch with professionals you’ve met, so that you can add value to each others’ careers and lives. So, stay in touch!

If you’re just starting out in your career, you might feel like you don’t have much to offer yet. That’s okay – you’ve got your whole life ahead of you, so there’s plenty of time to give back once you’re established.

In the meantime, LinkedIn’s activity feed makes it easy to stay in touch and let your connections know you’re thinking about them. Here are some ways you can leverage the feed to stay in touch:

When somebody posts an article or status that you like, let them know by clicking “Like” or leaving a comment

When you see that somebody gets a new job or a promotion, send them a message to say congratulations and ask how they’ve been doing lately

If you find a link or article that you think people in your network would like, share it!

Whenever you get some value from a connection – if you’ve learned something from them, or they’ve helped you out in any way – send them a quick message to let them know and say “thanks”